Kate Valk
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Kate Valk, and I am advocating on behalf of the writing collective Still Waters in a Storm. Stephen Haff is the crusader, teacher and mentor who founded and directs Still Waters, and he has been an associate of mine through The Wooster Group for over ten years. He has even directed plays performed at our theater in SoHo, The Performing Garage, with his students from Bushwick High School.
Still Waters in a Storm is a self-directed group of writers, a fellowship of young people, primarily from low-income families, in Bushwick, Brooklyn. They meet once a week in the apartment of Mr. Haff, who is well known in the community from being a public school English teacher for many years. He now works as an education consultant, and started Sill Waters over a year ago in response to an overwhelming need for the young people in the community to have a safe haven after school or work, a place where they can put their creative energies toward positive ends.
Each week, the group dynamic is defined by who attends the session, which lasts over three hours. The group gathers around an assortment of books and a pizza pie, and a short sharing period ensues. Then the task is set for each person, for the next hour or so, to sit with pen and pad and write--to write whatever comes to them, sometimes a continuation of a story they've been working on, sometimes an impromptu encounter of pen and page. Then, when the group consciousness decides the writing time is up, each person reads aloud to the group what they have written, and receives feedback.
I have attended several sessions and have been amazed at how this group functions: as a therapeutic family, a one-room schoolhouse. This kind of liberty is not often afforded in the lives of the young people involved. Theirs is a neighborhood not normally conducive to quiet self-examination and artistic creation. The writing group has become a real destination for these young people as an outlet of expression--their numbers are increasing with every session--and a place to shape a set of positive values.
With proper funding, Still Waters in a Storm could secure a larger meeting room to accommodate a growing number of participants. It could also increase the number of days a week that they meet, and provide stipends to group leaders, who currently work as volunteers and supply food for the sessions out of pocket. Additionally, having the resources to continue meeting with other similar groups around the city and in other cities would be a mutually beneficial exchange, helping Still Waters grow as an organization while showing others Still Waters' unique and restorative approach to group writing.
Still Waters helps young people find their own voices. It provides them a place for peace and creative release, and it serves as a supplement to the regular classroom--which often proves deficient in even more ways than their education as readers and writers. With funding, Still Waters can continue its devotion to the community through its expanded programming and continuing commitment to the lives of young people.
Sincerely,